Since it's now Windows XP's 20th anniversary in my time zone, allow me to present a Windows XP edition barely anybody has seen before; Windows XP Reduced Media Edition!

This is the precursor to Windows XP N. As history goes, Microsoft was fined by the European Commission in March 2004 and was ordered to provide a Windows version without Windows Media Player and related media functionality. (You can find out more details about this case here: European Commision vs Microsoft: chronology of the case - FSFE) After several unsuccessful appeals against the European Commission's ruling, Windows XP N was Microsoft's final answer to the aforementioned orders. While XP N was released in mid-2005 (to an apparent near-complete lack of interest from anyone), what many people don't know nowadays is that Microsoft had already shipped an almost-identical product to computer manufacturers in January 2005.

Windows XP Reduced Media Edition is that very product, with the ISOs I have of it being dated January 6 2005 (the same month it was shipped to computer manufacturers), though apparently no computers actually shipped with it till even shortly before it was replaced with XP N, according to this article: Microsoft updates slimmed-down Windows - CNET

The name "Windows XP Reduced Media Edition" was rejected by the European Commission in March 2005, and the name "Windows XP N" was provided as an alternative, according to this article (Windows XP without Media Player gets an 'N' | Computerworld), so it really does seem that this particular variant of XP never got off the ground!

Coming to the OS itself, this contains pretty much the same changes as Windows XP N does, aside from the name. Sadly, I only have this in the Professional edition, in both English and German. This release is based on Service Pack 2, and installs just fine like any other copy of Windows XP Service Pack 2. Additionally, it is updateable to Service Pack 3, though doing so will cause the OS name to be changed to "Windows XP Professional N". Though this is mostly for novelty purposes, I hope you enjoy this upload!

The contents of this upload are:

* preview1.png and preview2.png: shows off a tiny bit of the OS itself.
* Serials.txt: a bunch of serial keys you can use to install this, thanks to Team CYGiSO.
* WINXPVOL_DE.iso: The German language version of Windows XP Professional Reduced Media Edition.
* WINXPVOL_EN.iso: The English language version of Windows XP Professional Reduced Media Edition.

plus-circle Add Review

comment

Reviews